The Championship - Spring 2026 Preview

Long Drive on #3

Closest to Pin on #4 

 

For the 2nd official time in league history, we're headed to Hunter's Green - a course I consider the best in the Tampa city limits. That's right... I think it's a better course than Palma Ceia.

 

Not better conditioned or more exclusive or whatever the golf simpletons typically use to rate courses. The actual layout, hole diversity, and play-ability is better. There are more memorable holes. It's not a perfect course, but golf in Tampa sucks so the bar is set really low.

 

Anyway, we played it once eight years ago. Since that time they went from not wanting/allowing us to play... to seemingly very happy to take our pre-paid money. At $80 it's a deal, sadly. But since we're only going to have 15 people, the entire league is being taxed to cover the shortfall of one round going to waste.

 

That's the price of trying to play nicer, more exclusive places. The other price is the 11:28am start. Not ideal but they are private. They have a range so you might as well get there early to take advantage of it.

 

We go out in order of standings but I might have to make some slight alterations if the guest list changes.

 

Everyone is on WHITE unless you:

 

1) tell me you want to move back

2) are named Gary or Troy and are assumed to want to move up to WHITE/GREEN

3) find yourself in the 55/25 Club and also want to move up to WHITE/GREEN

 

 

 

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The "Westchase" guys are "deliberating" where to host this season's Hangover Party (next Saturday 3/7). I'll post that when they make a decision.

 

I was trying to get us on Calusa Country Club for the finals, but they will only let me book 8 days in advance. So the options are... wait until then and possibly be stuck with a noon tee time... wait until then and decide noon for $115 isn't worth it, and then get stuck with a late tee time somewhere else... or just book somewhere else for $120+ now and never go back to Calusa Country Club again.

 

These are the struggles of Dear Leader. 

Match Play - Spring 2026 Recap

Chandler (c'est moi) fell into another victory yesterday, as blustery conditions had the field hanging on for dear life. The 40 minute rain delay stalled what would have easily been a sub-4 hour round for most of the groups (shout-out to John, Topor and Danny who went off first and somehow played at a blistering pace despite taking 317 shots).

 

What followed the rain was 20+ mph sustained wind on a course that has a lot of lurking trouble.

 

But it drained wonderfully, allowing us to have a sporting set of matches!

 

Our season leader - Moostie - struggled after the restart but somehow grinded his way to a solo 2nd place shooting +1 (gross) on the final 5 holes. The 17th hole, playing into the wind, has to be one of the most difficult par 4s on tour, and yet Moostie had a great look for birdie (he lipped it out).

 

Unfortunately for The Moose, Chandler made a miraculous par (the only other par on 17) to win their match 2&1.

 

Dave beat Faz 2&1 in the only other match I'd consider "close." 

 

Gary beat Buchert 8&7 — from what I can tell ties the 3rd largest beatdown in Match Play history.

 

The Scepter guys apparently like us and have already emailed me saying we're welcome anytime. They also randomly reduced our rate to $70+ yesterday upon check-in. And if the BGR was still a thing, I reckon we'd see a write-up on the $16 two pitcher deal.

 

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Hunter's Green is this upcoming weekend (11:28am) and we have ONE spot remaining. The first person to send me $80 gets it. Perhaps Jeff P wants to join Melberg?

 

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I also want to remind everyone of our decades-long rules regarding playing eligibility:

• If you play in less than 6 events in a rolling 2-season period, your Membership is automatically suspended.
• This was going to happen to Casey after he set his entire season status to OUT, having only played 2 events in Summer 2025. He then asked for his Membership balance to be refunded, which was considered a resignation. 
• The Board can vote (3/5) to reinstate if you'd like (this happened to Danny last off-season).
• If you don't play in 4 events during the first 8 tournaments - you are not allowed to enter the final Major as a competitor. 
• You can still play as a guest... but you won't earn money, points, World Ranking points, it won't count as a played event for Rapture eligibility, and most importantly... you are NOT eligible for the hole-in-one pot that week. You basically don't exist, just as you haven't all season long.

 See some of you Sunday!

Scepter Range

Just a reminder that the driving range is at the old Falcon Watch clubhouse. Here's a map showing location compared to Scepter:

Give yourself plenty of time to hit the range. If you're late to the first tee - and your group tees off without you - you're getting the max (and loss of hole in Match Play) on every hole until you join up. After the Rapture last year I'm itching to apply this penalty to someone...

What's the definition of late? Well we have a rule for that: 

17) All players are expected to be at the course, checked in, and ready to play by the FIRST posted tee time. If your group tees off without you (after the first posted tee time), you'll receive a max score for each hole until you join the group.  

Our first tee time is 10am. 

Can Big John Save Us?

When this week started, I was really excited about Sunday.  I read Dear Leader’s post about spicy fairways and thought to myself, I don’t think I’ve ever had a spicy fairway before.  I like Mexican, Thai and Indian cuisine, so it has to be good, right?  I actually had to do a quick look through the Epstein files on the DOJ website to make sure I wasn’t about to break any laws.  I didn’t know if spicy was actually a code word that would lead to great public shame and embarrassment in a few years.  My search didn’t come up with anything, so I think we’re in the clear there.

What really got me excited though was reading at the bottom of the post that there are only 12 people signed up for Hunters Green.  I clicked on the link and realized there are only 9 Members are currently registered to play for the second major of the season.  That list includes Dear Leader but does not include the season points leader and our greatest club champion of all time, Tall Mike.  I realized this season is far from over.  I thought Tall Mike had it locked up with his 750+ point lead.  However, things can get really interesting if Dear Leader can win his match against Tall Mike on Sunday.  He would then go into the 2^nd major with incredible odds to add a bunch of season points given the extremely small field.  

It is plausible that Dear Leader could pass Tall Mike in the season standings in just the next two events.  What is better than that?  The two most accomplished golfers in league history battling it out for true GOAT status.  It’s like if Tiger and Jack actually got to battle it out head to head.

However, my excitement quickly subsided.  (Feel free to insert your own inappropriate joke here about excitement subsiding too quickly.)

I realized that if I had figured this out, with my smooth brain, that Dear Leader and Tall Mike probably thought of this as soon as they finished their delicious post round meals / beers at Countryway.  They will have had two full weeks to think about this coming Sunday and how important the result will be for the season and for their place in league history.  In other words, Tall Mike and Dear Leader are about to play the slowest round imaginable.  

If Tall Mike practices his take away 16 times on a 120 yard approach shot on Hole 15 of a tournament where he is in 8^th place, imagine what he is going to do this Sunday where every single shot matters.  I am picturing in my head all of those videos of pro golfers using AimPoint for a two foot putt…multiplied by a factor of 10.

Meanwhile, I am also afraid that Dear Leader may actually become paralyzed during the match in the event that his incredibly powerful brain short circuits from trying to analyze all of the point scenarios in real time while also greatly overthinking his course management. When our Dear Leader decides to lay up on a par 3 and then collapses under the pressure of the weight of the decision to chip or putt from 25 yards out because there is a bunker in his peripheral vision… I won’t be shocked.

I resigned myself to the fact that we are about to experience the slowest, most grueling round of golf in League history.  

But then I realized, there is one man who can save us.  I know what you’re your thinking:  nobody can get through to Tall Mike AND Dear Leader.  You would have to have the ability to influence the behavior of both a stubborn mule and an all-powerful dictator.  Nobody has that skill set.  However, if there is one man that was placed on earth to deal with a situation like this, it is Big John.  God gave us Big John for this moment.  We must put our trust in him to save us from five hours of purgatory.  I believe he can do it.  I believe he WILL do it.  He will shout at Tall Mike.  He will massage Dear Leader’s ego to keep his brain functioning.  We will finish our rounds in under 5 hours.  I believe this to be true because I believe in Big John.

Match Play - Spring 2026 Preview

Scepter is a solid value at the moment. The greens are good and the fairways are spicy! They didn't overseed so it's very firm and fast out there with dormant Bermuda — true Scottish links conditions. The rough is a little better than what we've seen on tour this season.

Long drive on #12.

 

Everyone is on WHITE unless you tell me you'd like to move back to BLUE:

 

 

The Match Play pairings will change as people bail. If anyone bails on Sunday it'll count as a loss for that person and a win for their opponent:

 

Moostie (5) vs. Chandler

 

Troy (2) vs. Ghost Moostie 

 

Topor (5) vs. John

 

Danny (4) vs. Ghost Topor

 

Reid vs. Geoff (1)

 

Gary (2) vs. Buchert

 

Dave vs. Faz (3)

 

Gorecki (10) vs. Billy

 

 

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We're down to only 12 people in for Hunters Green on 3/1, which means nearly half of our league funds are about to be depleted. Send your $80 over to me and ask your friends to play. If we don't have the league funds to pay for the missing people... then we'll take it out of the hole-in-one pot. 

Net Score Distribution

Geoff was asking about the distribution of net scores for our Club. Below shows every round in recorded history - net to par - as well as all rounds from 2021 through last weekend.

 

 

The new handicap system was implemented in 2020 and basically shifted everyone's net scores two strokes higher. What would have been +8 back in the day would now cost you a pitcher. I correctly predicted this back in this 2019 post - and determined more pitchers was a good thing.

 

Since the change, 21% of rounds played resulted in a pitcher owed. We should expect about 5 pitchers per round! Assuming four beers per pitcher, that's one beer per person (if everyone hung out).

 

The charts above also reiterate that shooting your handicap is a great score. Technically, the way the math works, if you shot even par (net) every round... you would eventually be scratch.

 

Lowest Net Score

-18 - Tall Mike - 2016 Summer (event 9) - ChampionsGate CC

 

Highest Net Score

+35 - Brendan - 2025 Summer (event 8) - Crescent Oaks

 

Gorecki also has the most "good pitchers" with 5. 

The Concussion - Spring 2026 Recap

Countryway is suddenly a difficult course now? The same place where most of us have (or nearly have) our personal bests?

Our return after a four-year hiatus was great for all the right reasons — none of which had to do with our golfing ability. The 11 renovated greens were the best we've ever seen at Countryway, and most of the remaining 7 (which they're finishing this summer) were also fairly decent.

So why did we all suck?

The new greens are much smaller than the old ones — which feels lazy and honestly offends me. The dormant Bermuda rough is impossible to chip from, so missing these tiny greens turns getting up-and-down into a nightmare. The oak trees lining every hole have grown noticeably bigger. And a bunch of the tee boxes were in awful shape — poor grading and zero divot maintenance.

Our co-winners, Topor and Moostie, didn't even seem that excited about the victory. Probably because both filled their pants on one of the last two holes.

Buchert easily could have won if not for two triples on the front. Dave was right there too—just one bad hole and a handful of frustrating missed putts.

Gorecki was leading solidly down the stretch with his -17 strokes warmly embracing his decaying corpse, only to blow up +5 and +4 on the final two holes. His solo 5th place still earned him an owed pitcher!

Speaking of pitchers: 14 owed yesterday — one short of the Temple Terrace record of 15 (Spring 2025). We've already passed last season's full total of 33. Looking back to 2020, our Spring seasons average 15 more pitchers owed than Summer. Gotta be the winter conditions plus the fact we usually play shittier courses due to access and price.

In any case, the bar and grill after was still top-notch greasy food and cheap beer. There were no sultry waitresses in sight, but we did get Two Pitcher Billy who played most of the back nine in a freshly made tank.

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We're off this weekend for a make-up we don't need. On the 22nd we'll be down at Scepter - the private course in Sun City Center. Update your RSVP so I can get our official name list to the Director of Golf.

On March 1st we're playing Hunter's Green for the 2nd (official) time in league history. A couple of caveats with this course:

• We must bring at least 16 players (no more than 20). There were 16 people "IN" when I booked it... now we have 15 and 3 maybes. Start thinking of any non-members you can bring.
• I had to prepay for the 16 players ($1,280). This is your Chandler Bucks in action, as they allow me to temporarily fund the deposit. Everyone needs to send me $80 to get placed on the roster. If we fail to get 16 players... then I'm repaying myself from our dwindling league balance.

See you in two weeks.

 

 

The Concussion - Spring 2026 Preview

We're headed back to Countryway for the first time in *checks notes* four years?! This was a staple of the league when we started — with 12 tournaments hosted (second to Southern Hills with 17) — and the epitome of this event. Eleven par 3s provide lots of greenie opportunities. The grill is probably the best on tour with some of the cheapest pitcher prices. And the location is near the central triangulation of our Membership.

 

The only bar that might get Congo to drink a beer...

 

Unfortunately time has not been kind to Countryway, and we ultimately determined the conditions were too shitty, even for our self-deluded "bougie" Club.

 

While we've found some great Concussion alternatives, it's time to give Countryway another chance. They had a "green renovation" project last year - which I'm told by "one of the General Managers" (there's more than one?!) turned out great. Other Members have also heard rumors of Countryway's return to glory... whatever subjective level of "glory" they ever possessed. 

 

Unfortunately Countryway seems to have let their USGA/FSGA membership lapse, and are not currently rated in GHIN. So we're just going to use the Slope/Rating from our 2022 tournament.

 

Everyone is on the tips. Long drive on number 17 (which doesn't require a driver). Driving a green counts as a fairway, and also a greenie assuming you make a 2-putt birdie. Tee time is 9:00am, and there is no range.

I have a strange feeling we’re going to see a hole-in-one this week.

 

I've also dropped our field down to 16 players due to all the maybes. The next two people who register are IN, and will be placed at the back of the pack where late registrants belong.

 

See you Sunday.